𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐒; JJ Maybank

two

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.★.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.★.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

First day of school. Everybody is bummed but they all have one thing to look forward to: seeing their friends again.
Well, not me. Besides Kie, Pope and I guess JJ, I didn't really know anybody. Despite Kie's effort to integrate me in her group of friends, JJ just didn't seem to even look at me. During this three days, I pretty much just followed Kie around. Pope was really nice but JJ just didn't even acknowledge my existence.

"You ready?" Kiara asked putting her backpack on her shoulder.
"I guess.." I answered breathing deeply. Everything's going to be fine.

Kie drove to Pope's place and there we picked up him and JJ.

"Good morning girls!" Pope greeted giving Kie a peck on the cheek and waving at me. " I still can't believe your parents allowed you to come to Pogue school." Throughout my time here, they explained a little bit how the social scheme around here works. It was pretty weird to me at first, but I've gotten used to it.

"Me neither but thank god they did, I wouldn't be able to take seeing Topper or Kelce's faces." Kie said, I noticed that when she mentioned those names, JJ looked up and clenched his fists. I guess that's a topic to avoid if I want him to at least talk to me.

After getting our schedules and verifying that JJ and I were in the same class during first period, Kie basically forced him to not leave my side. I tried to say that it wasn't necessary but if there's something that I learned is that whenever she put something in her head, nobody could go against it.

We walked the hallway in silence. I noticed that everybody was looking at him and whispering, maybe it had something to do with whatever happened during the summer. We arrived at the classroom and seated next to each other all the way at the back. The whispers and looks wouldn't stop and I could see that it was bothering him.

"Fuck it. I can't take it." He said quietly. He just grabbed his stuff and left the classroom leaving me confused.

I debated whether or not I should go after him, but even though he wasn't the nicest, nobody deserved to be alone when they are that upset.

"Excuse me, could I go see if JJ is ok? I think he wasn't feeling well.." I asked the teacher.

He allowed me to go and just then I realized I had no idea where he could have gone to. I knocked on the male bathrooms and nothing, checked the cafeteria nothing. When I stepped out of the school grounds, there he was with a joint between his lips, back against the wall and red cheeks as if he was crying.

"What are you doing here? You should be in class." He stated not taking his eyes of the street.

"I came to check on you.. you didn't seem ok." I said looking at my fingers while playing with them. What was I thinking? He barely talked to me during this past few days.

"I'm fine, you should get inside. Say that I got a headache or something." He replied harshly.

"No you're not. I can see that you've been crying." I answered. I know how he feels, I mean, I don't know exactly what happened but I can imagine that it was bad.. When my dad first got arrested, I was still in school and everybody would look at me either laughing or with pity. I don't know which one is worst because both hurt like hell.

"For your information I wasn't but why do you care?" He asked, looking directly at my eyes for the first time since we met.

"Because I know how it feels to be looked at that way." I answered adverting my eyes from him to my fingers. He scoffed and adjusted his position so that now his whole body was facing me.

"Do you know what it feels like to lose the person that is closest to you? I don't think so." Did his parents die during the summer or something? I guess it would explain why he is living with Pope.

"I mean kind of.. my dad didn't actually die but he's dead to me" I answered coldly with my eyes burning as if tears were threatening to fall. "I came to check on you but if you don't want to be helped, there's nothing I can do." I said shaking my head and turning around to wipe my tears without him noticing.

I walked inside, stopping in the girls bathroom to clean my face a bit. I hated crying in front of people.
I walked into the classroom and noticed that JJ was right behind me.
We sat down after excusing our absence and during the rest of the day he didn't say another word to me.

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.★.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

AN I think that there's only one highschool in Outer Banks but I wanted the pogues and the kooks to not see each other everyday in school so let's pretend that pogues go to public school and kooks go to a fancy private school. Also I'm not familiar with the American school system so I'm sorry if it seems unrealistic.